Tagged: homeostasis

Many people are confused by terms their doctors use referring to blood sugar levels. Rightly so, as the “normal” ranges have continually been lowered and lowered. I too, thought it was a scam from the big pharmaceutical companies who relish the idea of everyone being on medications for Type 2 Diabetes. ChaChing, ChaChing go the cash registers. Anyway, after much reading and re-educating myself on the effects of higher than normal ranges for extended amounts of time, has conceded that it is detrimental for people to maintain lower blood sugar levels, and here’s why.

There has been an epidemic, yes, it is now an epidemic, of Type 2 Diabetes among adults, and yes, young adults as well. Beginning in 2007 figures had already been astronomical, 25.8 million people diagnosed, that was 8.3% of the population at a cost of 174 billion dollars a year. What stands out in my mind is that at THAT time, 79 million people (25% of the population) had blood sugar levels in the “high normal” range, which to me is an oxymoron. Mainly because these are the people who today, 2013, have Type 2. I believe it is mainly due to lack of educating these folks on what was important for them to know. Preventing Type 2 is doable. The following information comes from a book by a Dr. Brownstein, who wrote “Balancing Your Blood Sugar” and is a must for Type 2′s who care about helping themselves, and yes, of course, he is trying to sell products, but that is your choice. I find his info helpful for anyone wanting to understand their infliction, or preventit from happening.

Our American diet is such that we overload on simple carbs, fats, sugars, and starches which causes our blood sugar to hit those dreaded “high normals” after our meals, this in turn causes our pancreas to produce and release more insulin to return our blood sugar levels back to normal. Many things come into play here, but simply, the more we allow these ups and downs of our blood sugar, the more we over work our systems of checks and balances. Our bodies like a happy medium, homeostasis, where everything is neutral. Prolonged excess sugar in our system devastates small vessels leading to eyes, kidneys, heart, and even circulation to lower extremities, and this is so gradual, most adults do not realize the damage until it is serious and only THEN do they discover they are Type 2.

Too much insulin is another issue all of it’s own. Once an overload of insulin is released to combat all the glucose in your system, it can do it’s job all too well, causing you to feel weak, tired, sweaty, unable to focus, and cause you to crave more food, so of course we grab whatever sweets are around to fix the fix, which in turn, you guessed it, causes more insulin to be released to correct your correction. If this were a perfect world, our problem would be solved, however, every food we eat gets processed at different speeds,( please refer to glycemic index) some taking much too long to correct your low, so we eat more, causing a higher blood sugar level. This, my friends, is known as the ” Blood Sugar roller coaster”, and unless you understand it, you are in for a ride. Been there, done that!

In my mind, ”pre-diabetic”, ”high normal range”, and “metabolic syndrome” all mean you should restrict yourself from eating as carelessly as you once did, monitor what you put in your meal plan, what you keep around the house to snack on, and increase your activity levels to assist your body’s use of glucose. MOST Type 2 can be prevented, do not allow yourself to accumulate all the visceral fat which leads to poor health.